How to Pronounce Me

I still get questions about how my name is pronounced, and have been meaning to put something about it here on the website. And I wanted to correct Wikipedia, which led off its entry with the strangest screw-up in International Phonetic Alphabet: Ursula as pronounced in America, Kroeber as pronounced in Germany, and Le Guin as pronounced in France. Weird! I'd use those pronuncations only in Germany or France. And the French one isn't even as "correct" as whoever put it there thought, because Le Guin is not a French name at all; it's Breton. It's pronounced, to the best of my knowledge, just like its Welsh cognate gwyn — white, blond, fair.

Not many people can read IPA anyhow, so here I am in English:

URsuhluh (UR as in burr; or, in England, URsyoola) KROb'r l'GWIN

If you want to see it in IPA, Paul Topping (three cheers for him!) got through to Wikipedia and got them to correct it — so, look me up — I'm ever so phonetic.

— UKL

Copyright © 2007 by Ursula K. Le Guin